“How was the fishing, Bert? I asked.
“Just awful,” replied Bert.
“Why’s that? I inquired.
“Mainly because I am such a lousy caster, my false casts were hitting the water spooking any fish around, and I was way off target casting to the rises,” lamented Bert.

Did you ever have a conversation of that nature? I haven’t.

During my years of fishing, from the coast of Maine to the Mountain West, I have heard many reasons why an angler failed to catch any fish. The reasons ranged from the bizarre to maybe, and came from fresh and saltwater fishermen. Of all the reasons given, the lack of the angler’s knowledge or ability was not one of them.

The weather is blamed a lot. It was too windy. It was raining hard. The barometric pressure was rising. The barometric pressure was dropping. It was too sunny. The wind was from the wrong direction.

Water conditions are real good excuses, be it rivers, streams, lakes, or oceans. The water is too high. The water is too low. The water is too muddy. The water is too fast. The water is too cold. The water is too warm. The Ph isn’t right. The tide isn’t right. The Gulf Stream is too far out. The Labrador Current is in to close.

The phase of the moon is not favorable. The alignment of the planets is not favorable.

Someone was fishing the stream ahead of me. The place is all fished out. There are too many people around and the fish are spooked.

The herons, kingfishers, and ospreys are getting or spooking the fish.
The otters are getting all the fish.

The Russian trawlers are getting all the fish.
The Japanese trawlers are getting all the fish.

But sometimes even the best anglers are not catching anything.

One day Harvey and I fished a normally productive stream and came up empty.
Harvey was my fly fishing mentor when I was a teen.

“How come we didn’t catch anything,” I asked Harvey. “I didn’t even get a hit.”

However, i would say the dragon wins most of the time, and poor little Billbo wins once in awhile. Where Billbo is us fisherman. When I used to go hunting with my father, starting out walking in the woods with him at around 9 or 10 yrs old and not really able to hunt with him till I was 12, I once asked him when we spotted 1 deer in the distance running off, why was that the only deer we saw that day in the fine part of prime woods in Washington state. He told me, "For every one deer we might see, probably a hundred deer had seen us walking through their woods." So from this pretense, I usually figure for each fish I might catch, many if not 100 have passed by my offering on a line.